At the Shrine of your Lies
by Random Little Imp
Summary: AU: Q is a hacker brought in by James Bond.
1. Chapter 1

He was not what Bond was expecting, this thin, young man at his feet. A dark mop of unruly hair and glasses magnifying beautiful brown eyes, bright with tears, his lanky body curled in on itself as he begged for his life. "I swear I didn't know what would happen! I was just screwing around, messing with stuff! I didn't know it was a government site I hacked into. Please, please don't kill me!" Bond stared down the gun sight at this supposed terrorist hacker and actually felt bad for him. This guy wasn't a threat to anyone. He sighed and put his gun away. Bond grabbed the sniveling man by the arms and hauled him to his feet, quickly securing them behind his back. Bond may not have believed him to be a threat, but he wasn't careless either.

He half dragged the hacker down to his car in the alley behind the abandoned house the younger man had been squatting in. "R, I have the suspect in custody. Let M know I'm bringing him in for questioning."

"He's alive? Bond I'm so proud of you, you managed to complete an assignment without killing anyone, I think it's a first."

"Try not to sound so condescending would you." James rolled his eyes, but couldn't help a bit of a smile, she wasn't wrong, "Besides, he wasn't exactly a dangerous villain. Unarmed, unskilled, and so slim a stiff wind would have knocked him over. He was on his knees begging the minute I showed up." Bond shoved his suspect into the back seat of the car, before getting into the drivers seat and starting the ignition. It would be a short ride back to MI6, and then he could go home and retreat into his newest bottle of scotch.

"What's your name?" it was a whisper that Bond nearly didn't hear over the sound of the engine.

"Excuse me?" Bond glanced in his rear view at the man in the back seat, he had managed to stop crying, but his eyes were still red, his cheeks wet. He had a small mouth, with what appeared to be very soft lips, in a slight pout as he looked at Bond's reflection.

"I'd like to know the name of the man who spared my life."

"Bond, James Bond." Bond went back to watching the road ahead as he drove through the city.

"Thank you, Mister Bond. I am very grateful to you." The younger man sighed as he slouched back against the seat, the leather barely made a noise at his weight.

"You haven't told me your name." Bond wasn't sure why he said it, or why it suddenly mattered to him.

"I'm Charles, Charles Fischer. It is nice to meet you."

Bond actually laughed at that, they both did.

M had Bond's capture questioned for the better part of a day by her top interrogators. It was hard for Bond to watch at times, even over the CCTV feed with the sound off, but it was a necessary evil in this line of work. He had watched numerous sessions just like it in the past, but for some reason this time there was a churning feeling in the pit of his stomach that made him feel pity for Charles. It was soon determined that the young Mister Fischer was not the threat he was originally taken for, but they were not about to let him just walk away from his crime.

M decided to instigate a sort of community service for him. Mister Fischer would be kept on site, staying in one of the unused barracks rooms, and work off his sentence assisting with Q Branch in a minor capacity. Bond understood what she was doing, she was showing this young man what it is they did there in hopes that he would decide that he wanted to stay on. He had no family to speak of, and orphans always make the best agents.

He was brilliant with computers, Bond could see that, and his talents were wasted doing minor IT work, but it's not like they could give a confessed criminal an all access pass to their secret government intelligence operation on the first day could they.

To say Charles was thankful to not be going to prison for the rest of his life on charges of terrorism would have been an understatement. To say he was less than thrilled about not being allowed to leave the base was also not quite correct. Bond got to listen to Charles go back and forth from grateful to annoyed and back to grateful as they walked to his new home in the old barracks.

Bond enjoyed listening to Charles speak freely, he liked the sound of his polished voice. The younger man obviously had the benefit of an expensive education, his vocabulary was high above that of the average person on the street. There were some words he used even Bond wasn't sure of the meaning, but he understood enough to know Charles was talking badly about M in the most polite way possible. It made him smile, while he respected the woman and the position she held, he could also see her faults. It would be nice to have someone else who did as well. M had already tasked him with keeping an eye on Charles when he was not off on missions, and Bond was starting to think he would actually enjoy this task.


	2. Chapter 2

The next month went by without incident. Well there was an incident or two, that was their job, but there wasn't anything unusual. Between his missions and keeping an eye on Charles, Bond was kept fairly busy. In fact he no longer spent as much time in the bottom of a bottle of scotch as he used to. Spending time with Charles was becoming his favorite past time.

The younger boffin was always welcoming to his special agent babysitter. Bond started to think Charles truly liked his company. They spent hours talking about the things they enjoyed while sharing a meal Bond would bring down to Charlie's' room. In the time that followed there were numerous cyber attacks against the MI6 servers. They came suddenly, during the early afternoon hours. It was as if the would-be hackers were targeting the times when the majority of Q branch was at lunch. Luckily Charles was in the habit of taking an early lunch and was walking the halls when these attacks would happen.

In the beginning the attacks were simplistic and focused on one area of the servers. As if they were looking for weaknesses, testing the waters. Attacks that would be easy for any regular staff member to fight off. With his hacking background Charles was able to easily step in and take control of the situation. At first he would just make suggestions, eventually gaining the trust of some lower techs to actually guide them through it, until finally they just moved out of the way and let him take the keyboard, it was faster for him to just do it, then to tell them how to.

The attacks continued, and steadily became more and more complex until only the top techs, and Charles, could handle them. The times of the attacks began to vary as well. It became quite clear that whoever was perpetrating the attacks knew when the top techs were out of the office. There was even an ongoing investigation to find a possible leak or mole in the ranks. But the attackers never seemed to realize that Charles was there, let alone he was available twenty four hours a day.

James remembered one of the lower techs making a comment in the middle of one late night attack about their luck that Charles was always available when these attacks happened. It seemed like a compliment, but the tech wasn't smiling when he said it. It struck James as odd for a moment, but decided the tech was just tired from working a long shift.

With each attack halted by Charles, M's trust in the younger man grew. Eventually offering him a position in Q branch and releasing him from his house arrest.

During all this time James and Charles had become much closer than the jailer/prisoner dynamic would usually cover. Friendship grew between the two men and when Charles was able to leave the complex James offered his spare room to Charles until could find his own place. One night, shortly after he had moved in with James, Charles offered to thank the older man with dinner.

"That is not necessary Charles." James told him.

"Yes it is. You have been such a help to me over these past months. Being my friend while I was in custody, giving me a place to stay now. Besides, I just got my first paycheck and it's more money than I know what to do with." Charles smiled.

"I'll introduce you to my tailor, get you into something other than those cardigans." James smacked the younger man on the shoulder in a friendly gesture, fighting the urge for his hand to linger there.

Charles laughed lightly, "No thank you James. I'm perfectly content with my current wardrobe."

James was impressed with Charles' choice in restaurant. It was a three Micheilin star French bistro style restaurant that James had taken one or two lovely ladies before, to impress his way into their bed. A delicious meal and jovial conversation between two friends made for a very pleasant evening. Charles picked up the check and headed out onto the street to hail a cab while James gathered his coat from a young woman near the front door.

James couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face as he thought about his evening so far. He slipped on his woolen coat over his suit jacket as he stepped out of the restaurant to join Charles. James was momentarily confused when he found the sidewalk empty. Charles was no where to be seen. Then the sounds of shouting drifted out from the alley beside the building.

"James!" It was clearly Charles' voice calling out in a panic. James took off for the alley without a second thought.

When James rounded the corner he found Charles backed against the wall looking pale and scared under the dim glow of the lamp pot on the corner. A larger man in an ill kept suit was advancing on him, his hands in fists. The man's fat face was red with anger, "You don't do that to a person, to a family, and get away without punishment." The man growled at Charles through gritted teeth.

Charles caught sight of James, but tried hard not to make it noticeable. "I don't know what you're talking about, I'm not who you think I am." Charlie stammered weakly. The man looked suddenly confused.

"What are you on about? You know who I am, and what you did. Why are you talking like that?" The man looked curiously at Charles, but did not back off even slightly.

"Charles turned his head slightly towards James at this point, "Please James, tell him I'm not who he's looking for!" he pleaded.

The man turned to see who was Charles had spoken too but saw only James' fist as it crashed into his nose, sending him to the ground with a thud. This close to the man James could see he hadn't shaved in days and there was the unmistakable scent of cheap whiskey permeating the man's clothes.

"Go home sir, you're drunk." James said flatly as the man groaned up at him.

"You don't know him! He's not who he says he claims to be, he's a liar! You can't trust him." The man called after them as James escorted a shaking Charles to a cab that had pulled up to the curb.

"He thought I was some con man who had swindled his life savings away from him. He thought I ruined his life. I've never seen him before James, I swear." Charles' voice rushed out of him as the adrenaline raced through his system.

"He was drunk Charles. He had no idea who you were, just mistaken identity. Are you hurt?" James was looking Charles over for any signs of injury.

"I'm fine, thanks to you." Charles looked into James' eyes, scared tears drying on his cheeks, "All thanks to you." He whispered as he leaned forward closing the gap between their lips and kissed James.

The kiss was tender and soft, Charles wasn't sure how James would react. When he did react, James' logical mind was silenced by his physical need to taste every inch of Charles' mouth with his own. James took Charles' face in his hands and deepened the kiss until both men were left gasping for breathe. 


	3. Chapter 3

The two men pulled apart long enough to exit the cab when it arrived at James' building. He quickly turned to pay the smirking driver, who thanked him and told him to have a good night with a knowing chuckle before he drove off. James decided that they were lucky to have gotten that particular driver, as most would have chucked them out on the street for their nearly obscene display in the back seat.

The two men, flush with desire, kept their composure as they walked to the lift and rode the small metal box up and up until they arrived at their floor. The doors opened to a short hallway that only had one other door in it, as James' flat stretched the entire floor. He hadn't given a second's thought to inviting Charles to stay with him, he had plenty of room to spare.

As soon as they were inside, the door locked behind them, they were on each other again. They were pressing their faces together hard and without skill, like a couple of randy teenagers. Slowly James moved them down the hallway until he reached his bedroom door. He turned so his back was to the open doorway and pulled his lips away from Charles' to look him in the eyes. "We can stop here, now, if you want to slow things down and take more time." James spoke earnestly, being thoughtful of how quickly their relationship was changing.

Charles looked at James dead in the eye, "I think we've waited long enough, don't you." James' mouth quirked up at the corner, just slightly. With that Charles pressed their lips back together and pushed James gently back into the room.

Charles was much more forceful in bed than in the office. The usually meek and quiet man wasted no time pressing James down onto the mattress beneath him, taking his pleasure with little regard to his partner. It was more than James would have ever expected and found that he quite liked the change in Charles' demeanor when they were alone together like that.

They spent the night together in James' bed revelling in each other, mindless of the future consequences, but when the morning came Charles reverted back to the mild younger man James had known for months. "We can't tell anyone about this." Charles was adamant if not overly fidgety. "They'll be sure to sack me if they find out about this."

James tried to calm his lover, "Don't be ridiculous."

"I'm not being ridiculous!" Charles' voice was getting louder, "I know how they talk about your conquests in the office, and I do not want to be thought of as some weak willed little plaything."

James eventually, although reluctantly, agreed to keep their relationship a secret, even if a small part of him wanted to shout it from the rooftops. Charles' argument made sense. No one at MI6 would take him seriously once they heard he had been bedded by the great seducer 007, they could even decide he was a liability and show him the wasn't entirely sure how he'd let his reputation get that bad, not that he ever had to worry about it before now. He wasn't much interested in long term relationships, at least in the past that was true. Charles seemed like someone who wouldn't put up with that kind of treatment, not that James wanted to walk away from him anytime soon.

By day they remained completely professional, making sure not to betray anything of their romance to MI6. When their professional paths crossed people had to admit how well they worked together. It wasn't often that James had to deal with Charles during missions, he was still a in a pretty low level position, but when he did the snark that passed between them would have left most techs crying in a closet somewhere, but Charles just gave as good as he got. It was impressive to watch, even more to be a part of thought James. As soon as the door to their flat closed behind them things were drastically changed. By night they fell on each other like starving men in the desert. Charles couldn't get enough of James and the feelings were mutual. Things continued this way for a few weeks. Then a hard drive had been stolen.

Then there was a motorcycle chase on roof of the Grand Bazaar.

Then there was a fight on top of a train.

Then there was the fall.

Then death.

James hadn't realized until that moment how tired he was. Tired of his life in espionage. He did miss Charles, and wished he could have taken the younger man with him to the end of the world where he hid. James knew that would never have happened without giving away that he still lived, so he found comfort in the arms of some nameless woman.

Then there was the bombing, and James knew his death was at an end, Even if he had not felt duty for Queen and country he would have had to know if Charles was still among the living. Grimly, James felt there might be hell to pay when he reappeared.


	4. Chapter 4

For weeks they poked and prodded him. Testing him physically and mentally. The physical tests was hard. James was showing his age, he had to admit. It didn't help that recovery from his gunshot wounds and subsequent fall had taken longer than he'd like to admit. It had left him weak. The mental tests though, were unbearable. In fact he walked out of most of them before they were finished, but to be truthful this was nothing new for James. He laughed as he thought of what the psych department could possibly have to say in his file about his scores.

So when he found himself sitting in the National Gallery he had to wonder how he had managed to pass. He had a sneaking suspicion that M might have had something to do with it. She obviously wanted him back in the field, whether he was ready or not.

He still hadn't heard anything about Charles' current location. His flat had been sold, so Charles obviously would not be there. His name did not appear on the list of the dead, so he survived the attack. James hadn't had the opportunity to ask after him with all the tests they had him running through, but he planned to track him down to apologize for what had happened.

James was so deep in thought that when the very man he was thinking on sat down right beside him he didn't recognize him at first. It was not until James heard him call him 007, and then James' stomach did a little flip of recognition.

Charles didn't seem to be angry with him,he must be a great actor or James hadn't meant as much to him as James had believed. No, that couldn't be it. Charles had been wholly devoted to James, he had to believe that. Charles knew what James' life had been like before. He had to understand James' decision to walk away when given the chance.

As Charles walked away he had a smile on his face. James didn't feel any better though. James took a moment to steel himself and went after Charles. The gun case tucked under his arm, he reached the younger man near the front entrance. James took Charles gently by the arm and pulled him aside, immediately whispering in his ear, "I'm sorry, if I could have gotten in touch I would have. You are the reason I came back, you know that don't you?."

Charles' bland expression changed to one of slight confusion and then thoughtfulness before settling in a slightly sour smile. "Why haven't you been by the flat then?" His voice seemed to hold a bit of an edge but the anger didn't sound completely genuine to James.

"MI6 told me they sold the flat, I assumed you had relocated." James looked at Charles quizzically.

"Who do you think they sold it?" Charles gave him a lopsided grin. "All of your things are right where you left them, including me."

James' face must have shown his confusion and shock because Charles continued. "I was happy with the flat and I hate moving. Besides, I had a feeling you would be back when your body was not recovered. You are a hard man to kill Mr. Bond."

After the destruction of Skyfall James took some time off. He was emotionally spent and part of him longed to return to the other side of the world and hide. Charles didn't seem to understand at first. When James came back to their flat from Scotland Charles seemed to expect things to go right back to the way they had been before James died. When James explained he wasn't ready for that yet Charles seemed miffed and almost ignored James for a week. James was grateful for the personal space and felt that Charles was just being thoughtful.

James spent the quiet hours wandering around the flat, refamiliarizing himself with this world of his. Charles had been truthful, all of James' things were right where he had left them. Although it seemed as if his lotions and colognes were at a lower level then he remembered them being when he had left before. Perhaps Charles had used some to remind himself of James while mourning his lovers death. The thought brought a smile to James' face.

When James did start feeling more like himself he and Charles went back to the physically demanding relationship they had had previously outside of the office. James had forgotten just how good it had been with Charles. As young as he was, his talents were endless. Having someone else take charge in the bedroom was quite the turn on for James as well.

The professional side of the relationship was by all outward appearances, completely platonic. It was common knowledge around MI6 though that while Q seemed quite timid usually, he was the only one who could match 007 step for step during an assignment. Even though they barely spoke to each other in the office, James had a bad habit of becoming even more difficult than normal if anyone but Q were on the comms with him. Q was also known to joke often about adding a mild electric shock feature to 007's next tracking implant so he could remotely discipline the agent if he should ever feel the need.

There was even one instance where James had come to Q branch for a weapons briefing in a rather irritated mood after having been scolded like a child by Mallory, the new M. It had been during a debriefing for a mission where James had blown his cover. It had been necessary at the time to get the mission completed, M didn't see it that way though. Everything had worked out in the end, if a like more explosive than originally intended.

James had never been receptive of criticism and that day was no exception. So when the imposing blonde man had entered the lab all the unnecessary tech immediately found somewhere else to be. The anger was practically visible, rolling off him in waves of silent rage. Those who couldn't leave talked about what happened next for weeks.

As Q was pulling up the schematics of the latest gadget on screen, to explain the functions to the fuming agent beside him, his eyes appeared to never leave his when James reached to pick up some small component off the work table everyone was shocked at how easily Q was able to lift his saundering iron, still hot from his earlier work, and tap James' hand with the hot end with out even a pause in his explaination. The rest of the room went still, no one moved, staring at the pair, waiting. James had hissed in pain and surprise at the sudden burn to his hand and proceeded to glare at Q for the rest of meeting, but he never said a word.

At home that night was another story though. James was in complete control, punishing the younger man with his rough handling. Charles seemed to enjoy it, even with the bruises keeping him from sitting down for a couple days.


	5. Chapter 5

It was an autumn afternoon when the call came in. No one was even sure how they had gotten the number, but a recorded message rang through to Eve's direct line. It stated that a small militant group of freedom fighters were hard at work hacking into MI6 servers, and by receiving this call it was an indication that they had breached the firewalls.

By the time Mallory made his way down to Q Branch the techs already knew about the hack and were busy running from computer to computer trying to boot the offenders out of the system. Q was furiously typing on his keyboard while barking out orders to the other more competent techs.

"Q, status." was all Mallory needed to say to get the younger man's attention.

"It appears they had been chipping away at our defenses for days and just got through a few minutes ago. They are causing all manner of havoc and we're just barely keeping up. I haven't managed to kick them out of the system yet, but…" Q was interrupted by the phone on an empty desk near him ringing suddenly.

Q looked at it curiously, "I didn't even think that phone was set up to get incoming calls." Mallory picked up the receiver and placed it to his ear. His face began to lose all color as he listened to the message on the other end of the line. He slowly placed it back in the cradle and turned to face Eve.

"That was another message from the hackers. They say they are going to trigger a gas explosion and destroy the building in forty minutes. Everyone needs to evacuate, sound the alarms." He then turned to Q, "Give me some good news."

"I have an address. They are in London." Q handed a slip of paper to Mallory just as the evacuation alarms started to sound and the lights all went red.

James was doing the shopping when Mallory called him, he was already halfway to the address from the shop. James dropped everything and raced through the streets of London, not obeying a single traffic law, and was at the location Q had given them in mere minutes.

He put his phones earpiece in and called Mallory back. What he wouldn't give for a proper earpiece instead of the bluetooth for his phone, and Q on the other end instead of M.

The building was a dilapidated warehouse with a rusty lock on the door. James was able to easily able to shoot it out and burst through to the dusty, and empty, interior. There was nothing there except a small computer tower in the middle of the room, hooked up to power and phone, but nothing more. James didn't even see a monitor or keyboard to control the towers programs with. It was obviously set up to run all on it's own.

James described the scene to Mallory, who responded after a moment, "Q says that it would make no difference if you destroyed the machine at this point. It has obviously done its job, the virus is fully realized in the system now." As if to emphasize the point there was a small popping noise and a puff of smoke suddenly coming from the tower now as if it had self destructed after serving it's purpose.

James cursed under his breath, turned, and headed back to his car at a quick pace. "I'm coming in.""we have evacuated to secure location 'All Seeing'."

"Is Q with you?" James asked him trying to keep the worry from his voice.

There was silence on the other end of the line that James found disturbing.

"James," Mallory's voice was softer than usual, and he never used his name during missions, "I know you and Charles think you have been discreet, but you must know that very little goes on without me knowing."

"Is Q with you at the evacuation site?" James did not like the direction the conversation was heading.

"I need you to stay calm, you are an agent and I need you to think logically about your next action 007."

"Is he there?" James was yelling now.

"No, he is not. Q refused to leave his post, convinced he could still stop the attack."

"Damn it Charles!", was the last words Mallory would hear from his agent, as James threw his phone's earpiece out the window of his speeding car. James would drag him out of Q Branch and to safety whether he liked it or not.

Bond could barely believe what he was seeing. He had rushed down to Q branch to drag Charles away from the computer terminal, to evacuate with the rest of the staff. If the message had been true they were minutes away from the destruction of MI6, and Bond knew Charles would be doing whatever he could to try and stop it. He would be fighting this computer virus with every trick he knew, trying to save MI6, to save them all. What Bond did not expect was to find Charles calmly sitting at his desk drinking a cup of tea watching the red numbers on the giant screen on the wall steadily counting down.

"I knew you'd come to save me from myself James. I think I may have played my part a little too well when it came to you." Charles set his tea cup down on the desk and slowly stood. "Don't feel too bad, you are not the first to fall for my innocent act, and you won't be the last. Remember the man in the alley."

"Charles, we need to go. If there is no way to stop this we need to get clear before the clock runs out." Bond's mind was still trying to wrap itself around what he was seeing in front of him, it was his Charles, his lover, his heart but at the same time it wasn't the same man at all. This Charles held himself completely differently, and his eyes no longer shone with the love that was there just hours before.

The seeming doppleganger slowly walked towards him, a hint of a menacing grin playing at his features. "You poor, love sick fool, don't you understand, it was all an act. Every moment from the time we meet in the run down house has been a well told lie. It was all so I could earn my way into MI6 for this exact purpose."

Bond's mind was reeling, it was obvious that Charles was telling him the truth, it was all a lie, a vile betrayal from a brilliant, calculating fiend that Bond never saw coming. Bond never felt something so painful before as how his heart felt at that moment. The tightness in his chest actually caused him to double over, dropping his gun on the floor, he felt ill.

Charles was right in front of him now, eyeing Bond like the predator he was, the wolf revealed from beneath his sheep's clothing disguise. "To be completely honest, you were never part of the original plan, it was unnecessary for reaching this outcome." Bond looked up at the man in front of him, hopeful for some crumb, some hint that what they had was true. "No seducing you, making you think I loved you, that was just fun. It was rather nice having a tamed attack dog at my beck and call." With that Bond's heart went deathly cold in his chest and he knew there was nothing left of the Charles he had fallen in love with.

"All those cyber attacks? You stopped them. you helped us. WE TRUSTED YOU!" Now that the truth was out Bond started to get angry, the agent started to take over, he stood eye to eye with this villain in front of him.

"I orchestrated them all. Why do you think it was so easy for me to beat them, how they only ever attacked while I was there. It was all my own doing. You brought me in and I have been playing with the systems for months. This virus has been sitting in a dark corner of the server since the first day they let me touch a computer, just waiting for a specific key code to activate it. All it will destroy is the server room, were completely safe here. Everyone will think that the files are lost, destroyed, but what they won't realize is that I am uploading them to a secure server far from here. Then I will get rich selling off all of MI6's files piece by piece to the highest bidder." Charles laughed at that, a cold heartless laugh.

Bond swung at the smaller man with enough strength to snap his neck from the impact, but all he hit was open air. Charles ducked under the swing and landed half a dozen light blows to Bonds mid section so quickly Bond barely registered that he had a knife. Blood quickly stained his white dress shirt, dripping down his leg before Charles' brought his arm up to swipe across his neck with the exceptionally sharp blade.

Bond grabbed at this throat and fell to the floor as Charles turned and began walking away, dropping the knife as he headed for the stairwell. "Charles.." Bond barely managed to say his name as the blood drained from his body. Charles Fischer turned towards Bond but he didn't have time to say anything, he didn't even register the gun, now in Bond's hand again, before the bullet penetrated his skull right between his eyes. His grin dropped as his lifeless body fell to the floor. It was over for him and for Bond.

This was not something Bond would be coming back from, but it didn't matter anymore. He had gotten the bad guy. It was too late to stop the virus, to stop the bomb, but that wasn't Bond's problem. Not anymore. They would have to deal with that without him. He watched to numbers ticking down as the word around him slowly went black.


End file.
